The first Waco Division IP trial of 2022 wrapped up last Friday, following conclusion of the trial in NCS Multistage v. Nine Energy Service. This was the first oil-and-gas-related patent dispute to proceed to trial before Judge Albright. Given the holiday weekend, openings were on Tuesday morning; summations were delivered late morning on Friday; and the jury returned its verdict Friday afternoon. For reasons not specified, dial-in information was not broadly disseminated in the Court’s trial procedures, but rather was given out based on “contact[ing] the law clerks for the dial in information to observe the trial proceeding.”
On conclusion of the trial, this jury found for plaintiff NCS on both of NCS’s infringement theories (i.e., direct and indirect); rejected the defense’s invalidity assertion; and awarded $486,400 in damages (about three-quarters of what NCS was seeking).
Next trial up on Judge Albright’s calendar is, EcoFactor v. Google, scheduled to begin a week from today. We’ll keep you posted.
And as our wrap-up, here’s the latest update the Texas IP trial tracker:
(See Excel Sheet)